Reference Materials

• Almanac
  An annual reference book of dates, facts and statistics. It usually is composed of various lists, tables, and often brief articles relating to a particular field or many general fields.
   
• Atlas
  A book or bound collection of maps, sometimes with supplementary illustrations and graphic analyses. 
   
• Catalog
  A list of items such as books, periodicals, maps and/or videos arranged in a defined order. The list usually records, describes and indexes the resources of a collection, a library or a group of libraries. The OPAC is the ONLINE PUBLIC ACCESS CATALOG.
   
• Dictionary
  A book which defines the terms of a language, profession, discipline, or specialized area of knowledge. The terms are arranged in alphabetical order. Usually, a language dictionary will give the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of each word.
   
• Encyclopedia
  A work containing factual articles on subjects in every field of knowledge, usually arranged alphabetically. A SUBJECT ENCYCLOPEDIA is a similar work on a single field of activity or a single subject. An encyclopedia can be one volume or many volumes, depending on the amount of material included.
   
• Periodical
  A publication that is produced at regular intervals, or "periodically", under the same title and is intended to appear indefinitely. Generally, the frequency is more often than annually such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
• Thesaurus
  The thesaurus is an alphabetical listing of the terms currently in use. The thesaurus will also show relationships between terms such as synonymous or related terms, hierarchical arrangements (broader terms, narrower terms), and provide references from terms not currently in use to acceptable terms, including older words or phrases that are no longer used. A book of synonyms and near-synonyms in a written language, usually arranged conceptually, although dictionary arrangement is not uncommon

The Internet

• Internet
  The internet is a network of networks. A network is a group of computers that are connected so that they can share information. The internet allows people on one network share information with people on another network.
   
• Domain Names
  A domain name describes part of the web site’s address. The domain name consists of the body of the basic address and the end of it. A sample domain name is google.com. The end of the domain name (anything after the “.”) is called the Top Level Domain (TLD). Below is a basic guide for TLDs.  .com – generally for commercial purposes  .gov – reserved for a government agency  .edu – generally for educational purposes such as schools and colleges  .k12 – used for elementary/secondary schools  .mil – reserved for a military organization  .net – generally for a network  .org – generally used for other types of organizations, oftentimes a not-forprofit
   
• Web Address
  Each web page has its own address on the Internet. The address is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
   
• Web Page
  A document connected to the World Wide Web (www) and viewable by anyone connected to the internet. A web page is identified by an address which is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
   
• Web Site
  A web site is a group of linked Web pages installed on a server. A home page is the starting point of the web site.
   
• World Wide Web
  The most popular way to search for information on the internet. The Web uses hypertext links to travel through Web pages located on different computers around the world. Hypertext links allow the user to jump from page to page with a click of the mouse.
   
• Search Engine
  A software program that searches a database and gathers and reports information that contains or is related to specified terms. A website whose primary function is providing a search engine for gathering and reporting information available on the Internet or a portion of the Internet. Some popular search engines are: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask and AOL. A Meta-search engine is another type of search engine, which searches the databases of individual search engines and provides you with "top results". Some meta search engines are Dogpile, Clusty and ZapMeta.
• Internet Directories
  Tools for finding web pages arranged by subjects. Unlike search engines, sites are recommended by people in the Internet community to be included in the Directories. Some subject Directories are: Yahooligans, Kid Info and LookSmart.
   
• Virtual Libraries
  Collections of Internet resources that are evaluated, selected, organized and described by librarians. Some virtual libraries are: The Internet Public Library, Kidsclick, and Librarians' Index to the Internet.